Boks set for All Blacks' garden of Eden

September 6 2025 will be a red-letter day on the Springboks' calendar as they set out to conquer a peak devoid of human footprint since 1994.

That was the last time the All Blacks suffered defeat at Eden Park, but next September the Boks have cracked an invite to New Zealand rugby's spiritual home for the first time since 2013.

New Zealand Rugby announced their home fixtures earlier this week and the Eden Park Test against the back-to-back Rugby World Cup-holding Springboks towers like Everest. A week later the teams are set to clash in Wellington where the Boks have met more success in recent years. The back-to-back fixtures are a reverse of this year's clashes in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

New Zealand's rugby bosses have almost pointedly steered clear of Eden Park when assigning a venue for Boks Tests over the last decade. On their most recent visit to New Zealand the Springboks did play in Auckland but that was at Mount Smart Stadium.

Next year's clash perhaps holds more peril for the All Blacks at Eden Park than at any other period against the Boks since readmission.

The Springboks under Rassie Erasmus will go there as Rugby World Cup champions and as defending Rugby Championship holders. The Boks also did something the All Blacks failed to do, beat the British & Irish Lions in their most recent series.

Under Erasmus the Boks have also rid themselves of some pestering monkeys since he took over in 2018. Breaking their losing streaks in Australia, at Suncorp Stadium, at Twickenham, while gathering silverware like the Prince William Cup, the Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate, the Freedom Cup and the Qatar Airways Cup along the way.

With all those achievements the Boks may have reason to be chest out when they run out against the All Blacks next year. They may also be buoyed by the fact that they've won their last four matches against the long-time adversaries.

Playing at Eden Park, however, will be a unique challenge for the Boks under Erasmus. Remarkably Erasmus, in his 36 Tests as a player, never encountered the All Blacks in Auckland.

The Springboks have an unflattering record in New Zealand's biggest city. The last time the Boks played at Eden Park their starting XV averaged almost 39 caps per player but Heyneke Meyer's team still came up well short.

One of the motivating titbits Erasmus will likely throw his team's way is the stinging reminder that a Springbok team has not won at Eden Park since 1937. The Boks won on their first two visits there in 1921 and 1937 but have gone winless there in their last eight Tests.

All conquering

The Boks are not alone.

The All Blacks have a truly remarkable record at Eden Park. They have gone unbeaten in 50 matches, winning 48 and drawing once each against the Springboks in 1994 and the British & Irish Lions in 2017. France came desperately close to inflicting the ultimate embarrassment on New Zealand in the 2011 Rugby World Cup final but questionable officiating spared their blushes.

The All Blacks' remarkable sequence started with an 18-all draw against the Boks in August 1994, to their most recent clash there, a 42-10 thumping of Argentina in August.

A month before the Boks' draw there 30 years ago the All Blacks lost 23-20 to France, thus handing the Tricolores a first ever series win in New Zealand. As much as the win was groundbreaking, the denouement as delivered by Jean-Luc Sadourny has been immortalised on highlights reels as the “try from the other end of the world”.

The Boks may have to conjure something as spectacular if they are to leave Eden Park victorious next year.